tHE cORNISH mINER mEMORIAL sTATUE bENDIGO cENTRAL vICTORIA - gOLD rUSH sTORIES pART 46 - WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CALIFORNIAN AND aUSTRALIAN gOLD rUSHES

Gold Rush Stories Part 46 - What was the Difference Between the Californian and Australian Gold Rushes?

Sydney Mint Gold Coins WHAT IS THE GOLD STANDARD? - GOLD RUSH STORIES PART 37
Black Cockatoo collection designer fashion fleece hoodie colourful nature wildlife australian vibrantI'll Always Be Your Little Boy by Kieran Wicks - Live Acoustic Rendition - Steel Globe Sculpture atop Mt Wycheproof Victoria by Jimmy Johnson yo-yo-ologist
Bendigo Gold Discovery Memorial Statue Central VictoriaMining on the American River near Sacramento, circa 1852
Mining on the American River near Sacramento, circa 1852
George H. Johnson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

DIFFERENCES IN THE GOLD RUSHES OF CALIFORNIA AND AUSTRALIA

The 1850s marked by far the greatest period of gold production the world had ever known, with Victoria alone producing a third of the world’s gold. New South Wales contributed an additional, comparably meagre, 5 per cent.

Approximated to be of comparable size in terms of mining population and gold production, the Californian and Victorian goldfields rapidly raised the world’s annual gold output by a factor of six or seven

"There was, however, a fundamental difference: in California the gold-seeking miners saw themselves as transient, whereas in Victoria they were more liable to remain, either staying as miners, moving to other Australian fields as fluctuating yields dictated, or settling into non-mining occupations. This is vividly illustrated by comparing the present-day landscape of the two goldfields – central Victoria, with its great gold cities, administrative centres, and public and commercial infrastructure, and the Californian mountains, with a myriad of small towns, some of these still inhabited but many others now ghost towns". (Cultural Heritage Unit, n.d.)

Gullgraver 1850 California -  A forty-niner peers into the slit of California’s American River. Photo: L. C. McClure, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gullgraver_1850_California.jpg

Gullgraver 1850 California -  forty-niner peers into the slit of California’s American River.

Photo: L. C. McClure, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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IDENTITY CRISIS

Rather focused upon what riches the vast open pastoral lands had to offer the fledgling economy, colonial administrators initially saw the discovery of gold as a hindrance if not an existential threat to colonial administration, concealing early discoveries to avoid a likely dislocation of the relatively small community, but various factors soon changed that policy.

Namely the mass exodus of a then dwindling population bounding the fence for the green gold fields of California from the rushes commencement in 1848, coercing the New South Wales colonial government to alter its position and encourage the exploration for and exploitation of payable gold.

Handbill of the California Emigration Society, Boston, advertising passage to  California "in a first-rate Clipper Ship." Published in 1856, it promoted the  economic opportunities to be found in the new El Dorado. On the verso, notice  was made of mining companies offering wages of "$4.00 per day and board to  steady workmen," testifying to the transformation of gold mining from individual  adventure to corporate enterprise.  Courtesy Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif .
Handbill of the California Emigration Society, Boston, advertising passage to 
California "in a first-rate Clipper Ship." Published in 1856, it promoted the 
economic opportunities to be found in the new El Dorado. On the verso, notice
 was made of mining companies offering wages of "$4.00 per day and board to
 steady workmen," testifying to the transformation of gold mining from individual
 adventure to corporate enterprise.  Courtesy Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif .
(Rawls, James J., and Richard J. Orsi)
California Gold Rush handbill
An 1849 handbill from the California Gold Rush. (Wikicommons)

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The Australian authorities, weren’t completely hapless, having learnt some valuable lessons since the beginning of the California Gold Rush in 1848, and as such were understandably hesitant of revealing discoveries to the wider public.

But by 1849 the colonial government acquiesced and sought the approval of the Colonial Office in England to allow the exploitation of the mineral resources of New South Wales, with a subsequent reward being officially offered to the first person to find payable gold.

(New South Wales Gold Rush, n.d.)

In effect A 360-degree transformation was emerging on the perception of Australia as nothing more than a penal colony, somewhere to send society’s waste, to a land of riches and opportunity.

 

@kieran.wicks #question from @kieran.wicks #CalifornianGoldRush #GoldRush #Victoria #Gold #49ers #Didyouknow #historian #WorldChanging #AustralianHistory #SocialChange #GoldRushStories #OneTownataTime #historyofmoney #GoldFever #GoldStandard #Economy #Inflation #LivingArtLifestyle ♬ original sound - Kieran.Wicks

 

Goldmine, Bendigo - Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales – The Holterman Collection c1870-1875
(Goldmine, Bendigo - The Holterman Collection , c1870-1875)

 

Sandhurst Sacred Heart Cathedral - Anglican Church Bendigo Victoria Ground Broken 1897 - By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building

Sacred Heart Cathedral - Anglican Church Bendigo Victoria
Discovery of Gold Commemorative Stone statue Bendigo Victoria  By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle
Discovery of Gold Commemorative Stone Statue, Bendigo Victoria
Former Bendigo Post Office built 1883 By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building
Former Bendigo Post Office Built 1883
Bendigo Post Office Commemorative Plaque - Ornate Stone Carvings of lions head and grape wreaths. By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building

In preparation for the end of the gold rush communities across Victoria built large, beautiful, neoclassical stone buildings, bringing about a sense of permanence for the settlements around which communities grew and flourished.

 (The Gold Rushes of Victoria and California Compared, n.d.)

Australian $10 Note featuring Henry Lawson with the Gold Rush town of Gulgong as a backdrop GOLD RUSH STORIES - PART 25 - WHAT MADE GULGONG SO SIGNIFICANT TO THE GOLDRUSH?Dusk Eye of Magenta Colllection Designer Jewelry Circle Gold Heart Pendant Love Pendant Sunset Orange design

Bendigo Town Hall Built 1860's By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building
BENDIGO TOWN HALL 
Bendigo Town Hall Built 1860's - Commemorative Information sign By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building
Bendigo Cathedral Kieran WicksThe Cornish Miner Statue - Bendigo Central VictoriaBanker Pig Statue Greed Bendigo Central Victoria
War Memorial - Bendigo Central Victoria
Bendigo Town Clock and War Memorial Soldier Statue Central Victoria
WORLD RECORD BOOMERANG THROWER - WYCHEEPROOF, NORTH WEST VICTORIA Giant Boomerang
Criterion Hotel, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872
Criterion Hotel, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872 
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148010047
Hanrahan's Mechanics Hotel, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872
Hanrahan's Mechanics Hotel, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872  https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148007332
View Street and the Rifle Brigade Hotel, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872
View Street and the Rifle Brigade Hotel, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148007238
Myers Street from St. Paul's Church tower with St. Andrew's Church, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872
Myers Street from St. Paul's Church tower with St. Andrew's Church, Bendigo, Victoria, ca. 1872
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148007549
Vortex Rain Making Guns - Charleville QLD
1922 '£1003 REWARD.', Moree Gwydir Examiner and General Advertiser (NSW : 1901 - 1940), 27 July, p. 1.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111858032
ayaka Raustralia Digital Art Red Sky - Bullocky Bill by Bowyang Yorke Poem Poetry of the Pioneers
THE ROAD TO GUNDAGAI BY BANJO PATTERSON
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A polymathic touring musician, film maker, historian and producer, for the past 8 years Kieran Wicks has navigated the Great Southern Land of Australia performing hundreds of shows to ravenous audiences, whilst simultaneously developing a vast catalogue of interviews, images and videos in the production of multiple formative docuseries including 'One Town at a Time', which records his musical journey, immersed in poignant, forgotten Australian history and poetry, in archives such as 'Gold Rush Stories' and 'Poetry of the Pioneers'.

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